Worst home-front disaster of WWII gets recognition (untrained workers get 8 to 15 years hard labor)

[Omaha Steve]

To build the transcontinental railroad they used expendable Chinese labor. They pony express wanted orphans. In the late 1800's the Irish were outcasts. Then next it was the blacks. Now it is the hispanics. Some things never change. What did Hitler say about scapegoats?


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-12-27-port-chicago_N.htm?obref=obnetwork


A huge explosion July 17, 1944, splintered the pier and blew ships out of the water.

U.S. Navy via National Park Service

By William M. Welch, USA TODAY

America's newest national park is largely removed from public view, just 5 acres on a remote bank of the Sacramento River on a military base in Northern California.

The powerful story it holds has gone little-noticed as well: the worst home-front disaster of World War II, when 320 men — two-thirds of them African Americans — perished in a giant munitions explosion. Fifty of the survivors were court-martialed for refusing orders to return to work.

It was a horror that helped bring an end to racial segregation of the U.S. military — a change that in turn gave impetus to the broader civil rights movement.

Now that chapter of history is getting a wider telling. President Obama has signed legislation making the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial a full unit of the National Park System, following approval by Congress. That means federal dollars, rangers and a visitors center, as well as preservation of the historical site and ruins at Concord, Calif.

"I am so thrilled," says the Rev. Diana McDaniel of Oakland, whose uncle was one of the sailors who survived the blast on July 17, 1944. "For me, it's a story that shouldn't be forgotten."

No munitions training

Of the men who died that night, 202 were African-American sailors assigned to work as cargo handlers, loading explosives, incendiary bombs, depth charges and ammunition onto ships for delivery to the war in the Pacific. According to the Navy's history of the event, the men had no training in handling munitions.

The black enlisted men were supervised by white officers.

"It was a terribly dangerous situation," says Robert Allen, professor of ethnic studies at the University of California-Berkeley and author of a history of Port Chicago. "The officers compelled the all-black workers to compete in loading munitions. The officers would bet on the outcome."

Something went wrong at 10:18 that night. The sound of splintering wood was followed by an explosion, then smoke, fire and deeper blasts. Two Merchant Marine ships were blown out of the water, one reduced to pieces of steel no larger than a suitcase. The shock was felt in Nevada. Five thousand tons of explosives went up in seconds, wiping away the pier, smashing buildings and twisting rail cars.

For many who survived, the aftermath compounded the trauma. The white officers were given 30 days leave to recover; more than 300 African-American sailors were ordered to resume loading at another munitions depot at Vallejo, Calif., by Aug. 9, according to the Navy's historical account.

When 258 of them refused to resume loading ammunition, 208 were given bad-conduct discharges and 50 were singled out for court-martial on a charge of mutiny. Thurgood Marshall, later a Supreme Court justice, represented them.

They were convicted and sentenced to 8 to 15 years hard labor, sentences that were set aside when the war ended. The proceedings brought attention to the racial practices of the military and, the Naval Historical Center's account says, served to "help illustrate the costs of racial discrimination and fuel public criticism."

FULL story at link.

[Captain Hilts]

1. It was horrible. A friend lived nearby. But white troops handled LOTs of ammunition

and this was not the only explosion of this kind. It's the only one in the continental US.

It was horrible how race broke down in the treatment after the explosion.

[laughingliberal]

2. I had never heard this story before. Words fail me. nt